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{
"id": 4353,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4353/?format=api",
"text_counter": 234,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the hon. Member may wish to know and he should not be laughing; this matter affects livestock, infrastructure, where roads are washed away by floods, agriculture and forestry. It is a cross-cutting issue. It is an issue of climate change. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the heavy rains are also hampering the harvesting and delivery of crops in the North Rift. There were reported drowning cases in Muhoroni, Kisumu County and Namanjalala in Trans Nzoia County. The rain forecast for the month of December indicates that the western sector of the country will continue to receive enhanced rainfall. The eastern sector of the country will experience slightly depressed rainfall. The Government’s crisis response centre is open 24 hours to receive and respond to any incidents of emergency arising from the enhanced rainfall. Members of the public can contact the crisis response centre by phone. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our country is experiencing enhanced rainfall against the backdrop of the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Durban, South Africa. Human activities such as deforestation and emission of greenhouse gases are warming the global climate, thereby altering weather and rainfall patterns. Kenya cannot escape the impact of climate change and must work together with other countries to mitigate and adapt to climate change. To keep the world safe from human-induced climate change, we hope that the Durban conference will make progress in establishing binding commitments to limit greenhouse gas emissions and mobilizing adequate financial resources for adaptation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I said yesterday, and I want to repeat it here, that we, as part of the developing world, are victims of greenhouse gas emissions, which have happened elsewhere. We should stop the blame game. I know that we also do have a responsibility to stop emissions that come, for example, from cutting of our trees and also burning of charcoal. That is the reason why we talked about reforestation of the Mau Forest and all our other water towers. We, like other parts of the world, have a responsibility to preserve and conserve this planet earth, because there is no space for us. Nor do we have the technology to transfer humanity to another space like Mars, once we have destroyed this one that we have. Therefore, collectively we have a responsibility to make this world livable. If the climate change process continues, this earth will become too hot for human habitation. Therefore, we have a responsibility as a people and country to stop the deforestation and begin the process of afforestation. We want to increase our forest cover from the current under 2 per cent to 10 per cent by the year 2020. That requires that we plant 7.6 billion trees. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must arrest the process of charcoal burning and that is why we have come up with a policy of kerosene-free Kenya. We want to move our people from using charcoal and kerosene to using green energy. Green energy is, for example, using solar lanterns as opposed to using kerosene lamps. It also means using resources like wind which we have in abundance in the country. It also means using geothermal resources which we also have in abundance in our country in order to move away from the dependence on fossil fuels which continue to pollute the environment. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}